In the bottled beverage industry, there is a significant segment thereof which, for reasons of economy and/or by virtue of governmental regulation, utilizes refillable bottles. Regardless of the reason underlying such usage, it is well known that during the production and packaging of a beverage any number of quality control problems can arise which may necessitate decapping the bottle, draining its contents and preparing it for reuse. Such problems include for example the post-packaging discovery that the beverage itself is defective by virtue of, for example, an off-flavour or some inherent instability which would reduce its shelf life. The problem might also stem from the improper application of a label or be due to low fills, for example. The capped bottles were, historically, decapped by hand, in an operation which was very slow, tedious in the extreme, and costly. In response to the need for a better means to decap bottles, a number of automatic machines have been developed. Some of these machines are adapted to decap individual bottles, one at a time, while others are adapted to handle the decapping of several bottles simultaneously. Still other such machines combine one or more ancilliary functions with the bottle decapping operation, such as for example combining the decapping and uncasing operations, or the uncapping and draining functions. In any case, and at least in as far as the bottle decapping operation per se, is concerned, these machines are basically of one of two types: (1) those which operate by rotating the screw-on type of cap off of the threaded bottle neck; and, (2) those which operate by prying the peripheral edge of the crimped skirt of more traditional bottle caps out of frictional engagement with the abutments arranged on the bottle neck. Numerous examples of the first type of machine are disclosed in U.S.A. Pat. Nos. 7; 1773,803,795; 3,844,093; 3,845,605; 4,030,271; 4,172,397; 4,178,732; and, 4,265,071.
A variety of machines of the second type have also been suggested. One such machine is disclosed in British Patent Specification No. 1,316,252 which teaches an apparatus for opening and emptying filled bottles sealed with a crown cap. The apparatus therein disclosed includes a decapping station wherein the bottle is supported in a horizontal position in axially aligned relation with a piston-actuated ram. The bottle cap, borne on the neck of the horizontally-positioned bottle, is passed through a close tolerance flaring die. When the piston-actuated ram strikes the centre of the cap, the downwardly depending peripheral edges of the cap flare to the extent that the diameter of the cap as measured around the peripheral edges thereof exceeds the diameter of the close tolerance flaring dye. The continued action of the ram causes the peripheral skirt to continue to flare until such time as the cap is released from the bottle neck abutment. The uncapped bottle then falls under the influence of gravity into an inverted position whereupon the liquid inside the bottle drains away. The apparatus required is relatively complex, requiring means to locate the bottle in a horizontal position and subsequently receive the bottle in its decapped state. Perhaps more importantly, the shock on the bottle due to the action of the plunger is obviously quite severe, and potentially damaging to the glass.
The general principle of operation of the apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned U.K. patent specification is very similar to the principle of operation of a machine disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2413037. The apparatus disclosed in the German document differs from the British device in that it does not require a complicated mechanism for positioning the bottles. In addition, the flairing dies, as well as the piston-actuated ram, are adapted to receive a plurality of bottles in simultaneous decapping relation with the apparatus.
Another apparatus of the above-mentioned second type is disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 785,481. This apparatus comprises a horizontal conveyor for delivering the capped, filled bottles to a decapping station. At the decapping station there is provided a wheel rotating in a vertical plane above the horizontal conveyor, that wheel being provided with a plurality of radially spaced apart hooks arranged about the circumferance of the wheel. The rotation of the wheel is synchronized with the motion of the conveyor, and the hooks depending from the periphery of the wheel operate to rip the caps off bottles passing beneath the wheel on the conveyor. As with apparatus of the type disclosed in the above-mentioned British patent specification, the apparatus disclosed in this Canadian patent is disadvantageous in that the violent way in which the cap is removed results, in many cases, in the sealing ring or abutment on the mouth of the bottle, becoming chipped during the decapping operation.
Yet another bottle decapping apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,914,920 and 3,870,175. In operation, the decapping apparatus must be carefully axially aligned with the capped bottle. The bottle is raised into a position wherein a fixed portion of the decapping apparatus engages the shoulders of the bottle while an internal, moveable portion of the decapping apparatus engages the lower portions of the cap's peripheral skirt in secured abutting relation. The moveable internal portion, acting in a manner similar to a gear or fly-wheel puller, is caused by the rotation of a threaded shaft to move relative to the stationary portion of the decapper and away from the bottle such that the bottle cap is pried vertically from the abutment or sealing ring located uppermost on the bottle neck. A somewhat similar apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,204. Such devices are rather complex, extremely costly and require a great deal of precision in their operation, which makes them difficult to maintain under plant conditions.
Another bottle decapping apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,854. The apparatus therein disclosed seeks to avoid chipping of the bottle necks by acting entirely on the cap to be removed, rather than on the bottle itself. This apparatus, however, like many of those discussed above, is relatively complex and requires that a number of mechanical actions to take place in a very precise, synchronized manner.
Accordingly, it can be readily appreciated that bottle neck chipping and even more severe forms of breakage remains a problem in the prior art. The only solutions offered to date have entailed complex and costly machinery that is highly susceptible to wear and other maintenance problems.
It will be understood that major problems arise when bottle chipping is not readily apparent since, in such cases, the damage is not generally detected and the bottle may be recycled, which in turn can result in damage to the automatic filling equipment, e.g. such as the sealing washers being ripped off or torn by the chipped bottleneck. This further exacerbates the original problem since damage to the seal on the bottling equipment can cause further inaccuracy in bottle filling and serves only to produce more improperly filled bottles which must then be recycled in their turn.
It is clearly apparent that automated decapping machines which utilize a lever action to effect decapping have carried over from the manually-operated, hand-held bottle opener design, the operating principle whereby the cap is levered off the bottle by engaging a portion of the peripheral edge of the cap's depending skirt with decapping anvil means, which might take the form of, for example, a hook and utilizing a diametrically opposed portion of the cap as a fulcrum across which to apply decapping leverage. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,747,443; 3,216,289; 3,355,856; and 3,651,751.)
A less common variant of the same operating principle utilizes as a fulcrum, the side of the bottle neck opposite the point at which the anvil contacts the peripheral edge of the cap (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,386,152). In the operation of both of the above-described variants, the anvil's motion necessarily follows an arcuate path towards the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the bottle during the anvil's decapping stroke. It transpires in light of the present invention, however, that such a carry-over in design from manually-operated, hand-held openers is both unnecessary and even more importantly, overtly disadvantageous in that the arcuate path of the anvil during the decapping stroke as above-described has now been found to contribute directly and significantly to the bottle neck chipping caused by automated prior art machines.
Generally, it is a feature of the present invention to reduce the incidence of chipping damage to bottle necks during the bottle decapping operation.
It is a further object of certain embodiments of the present invention to provide a simple, relatively low-cost, decapping apparatus.